U.S. Economy Contracted by Worst-Ever 32.9% in Q2
July 30th, 2020Via: Yahoo Finance:
The US economy contracted at the sharpest rate on record in the second quarter this year, affirming fears that the coronavirus pandemic and measures to contain it drove a historic plunge in consumer and business activity.
DONALD TRUMP SUGGESTS DELAYING U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DUE TO MAIL-IN VOTING
July 30th, 2020I’ve been thinking it for months:
There is no path through the Fall of 2020 that doesn’t involve chaos.
Via: Donald Trump – Twitter:
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
Harvard Prof Charged With False Statements, Failing To Report Income From Wuhan University Of Technology
July 29th, 2020Just another day at the office.
Via: ZeroHedge:
In what we’re sure is just an honest mistake and total coincidence, Harvard University professor Dr. Charles Lieber was charged yesterday “in a superseding indictment with tax offenses for failing to report income he received from Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in Wuhan, China.”
The United States District Attorney of Massachusetts said yesterday that Lieber, who had already been arrested on January 28, 2020, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston on two counts of making and subscribing a false income tax return and two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts with the Internal Revenue Service. Then, in June 2020, Lieber was indicted on two counts of making false statements to federal authorities.
The DA alleges that Lieber served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, which received more than $15 million in federal research grants between 2008 and 2019. Unbeknownst to his employer, Harvard University, Lieber allegedly became a “Strategic Scientist” at WUT and, later, a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015.
In Unprecedented Move, Congress Proposes Taxpayer-Funded Bailout Of $550 Billion CMBS Industry
July 29th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge:
The bill would set up a government-backed funding vehicle which companies could tap to stay current on their mortgages. It is meant in particular to help those who borrowed in the $550 billion CMBS market in which mortgages are re-packaged into bonds and sold to Wall Street. What it really represents, is a bailout of the only group of borrowers that had so far not found access to the Fed’s various generous rescue facilities: and that’s where Congress comes in.
To be sure, the commercial real estate market is imploding, and as we reported at the start of the month, some 10% of loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities were 30 or more days delinquent at the end of June, including nearly a quarter of loans tied to the hard-hit hotel industry, according to Trepp LLC.
China Banks, Regulators Panic on Retail Gold Buying
July 29th, 2020
Via: Reuters:
Hao said any further gains in gold may spur more speculation, despite regulatory attempts to tamp it down.
“If the gold price rises past $2,000, some more hot money will certainly flow into the market, and some investors will divert their stock investments to gold,” he said.
U.S. to Pull 12,000 Troops Out of Germany
July 29th, 2020Via: Guardian:
The US is planning to pull nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany in a move the Pentagon insisted was about long-term strategy, but which Donald Trump said was to punish Berlin for low defence spending.
Of a total of 11,900 personnel that will be leaving Germany under the proposal, 6,400 will be returning to the US, from where they could be used for rotational deployments in eastern Europe and around the world, while 5,600 will be repositioned within other Nato countries, particularly Belgium and Italy.
World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Project Begins Assembly in France
July 29th, 2020Simply the latest fusion power boondoggle… Or, something else?
Via: Guardian:
The world’s largest nuclear fusion project began its five-year assembly phase on Tuesday in southern France, with the first ultra-hot plasma expected to be generated in late 2025.
The €20bn (£18.2bn) Iter project will replicate the reactions that power the sun and is intended to demonstrate fusion power can be generated on a commercial scale. Nuclear fusion promises clean, unlimited power but, despite 60 years of research, it has yet to overcome the technical challenges of harnessing such extreme amounts of energy.
Millions of components will be used to assemble the giant reactor, which will weigh 23,000 tonnes and the project is the most complex engineering endeavour in history. Almost 3,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, some heavier than a jumbo jet, will be connected by 200km of superconducting cables, all kept at -269C by the world’s largest cryogenic plant.
Scientists Revive Microbes from 100 Million Years Ago
July 29th, 2020Via: AFP:
Scientists have successfully revived microbes that had lain dormant at the bottom of the sea since the age of the dinosaurs, allowing the organisms to eat and even multiply after eons in the deep.
Their research sheds light on the remarkable survival power of some of Earth’s most primitive species, which can exist for tens of millions of years with barely any oxygen or food before springing back to life in the lab.
A team led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology analysed ancient sediment samples deposited more than 100 million years ago on the seabed of the South Pacific.
The region is renowned for having far fewer nutrients in its sediment than normal, making it a far-from-ideal site to maintain life over millennia.
The team incubated the samples to help coax the microbes out of their epoch-spanning slumber.
Astonishingly, they were able to revive nearly all of the microorganisms.
How to Fake an Alien Invasion
July 28th, 2020From 2015.
Via: Corbett Report:
11 Million Households Could be Evicted Over the Next Four Months
July 28th, 2020Via: Fast Company:
Every year, about 2.3 million American renter households receive eviction papers at some point. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we might see that many evictions in one month.
Global advisory firm Stout, with input from the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC), used census survey results and income data to develop a new eviction estimation tool that estimates how many households could be at risk of eviction as moratoriums end, courts reopen, and rent relief efforts fall short. More than 16 million renter households are at risk of eviction, according to the tool, and more than 11 million households could be served with eviction papers over the next four months.
